Ladies and Gentlemen: Search Has Your Attention

"Google has
become the remote control for the world; it's the first stop, not TV”

- Will Margiloff, CEO of Innovation Interactive

Nothing is more realtime than Search. Have a question?
Search gets the answer for you right away. Need to find something right now?
Search will track it down in less than half a second. Search has the ability to
recover and discover information at the time
and (with the rise in Mobile Search) at
the place a person needs it. The need for immediate access to content fuels
the realtime web and its monetization potential.

“What information
consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence
a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate
that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that
might consume it"

- Herb Simon (1971)

Before most people would ever conceive of Search “Engines” or
AdWords Herbert Simon understood value was in attention allocation, not the
information. Twitter is perhaps the best “push” application to better allocate
our attention amid the overabundance of information and Search the best “pull”
application. The Internet is littered with valuable moments of attention but conventional wisdom is that ad dollars are
not being allocated based on the percentage of public attention the medium
receives. This despite attention is the first part of marketing’s most well
known acronym AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action).

“A-I-D-A - get out
there. You got the prospects coming in. You think they need to get out of the
rain? A guy don’t walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They’re sitting out
there waiting to give you their money. Are you going to take it? Are you man
enough to take it?”

- Blake (on a mission of mercy)

Google was man enough to take it. Advertisers have lined up
to give Google money in order to attract those valuable moments of attention. Today
there are nine advertisers bidding on the keyword “oil spill.” Prior to April
20th of this year there were none. These realtime emergent markets
are part of the power of Search. “Michael Jackson”, “Swine Flu”, “Super Bowl”, our
attention is fleeting but those moments of allocation whether they are hours,
days or months have people waiting to give their time and on the web. As with
other media channels time equals money.

“In two months, BP
went from spending very little on search advertising -- about $57,000 a month
-- to becoming one of Google's top advertisers, dropping nearly $3.6 million in
the month of June alone.”

This is what makes Search a unique channel. There is no planning
for Search. There are no flight dates for campaigns. Demand is based on the realtime
ebb and flow of public interest and intent. As Will said in the quote above,
Search is a user- controlled media. Giving people that control (apart from
being revolutionary) has worked out pretty darn well for advertisers. In fact,
creating more inventory to satisfy them has been Google’s number one priority
the past five years. There is simply not enough keyword driven inventory.

Some people may argue this is because Google has allocated attention
too efficiently. Others may argue the demand is simply not there. I believe
these moments of attention are abundant and require understanding the realtime
nature of attention. Capturing those moments of attention at different times
and in different places is the future of not only of Search advertising, but all
advertising.

Comments

Great post as usual. Having the best offering when attention has been allocated to one's product is an amazing opportunity.

You mention "there is no planning for search." I am interested in doing better when one can plan for search- interest in our products comes in waves throughout the year, outdoor living, kitchen remodeling, etc. It's fairly predictable.